On angels
All was taken away from you: white dresses, wings, even existence. Yet I believe in you, messengers. There, where the world is turned inside out, a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts, you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams. Short is your stay here: now and then at a matinal hour, if the sky is […]
Without drowning
The weight of a man on a woman is like falling into the river without drowning. Above, the world is burning and fighting. Lost worlds flow through others. But down here beneath water’s skin, river floor, sand, everything is floating, rocking. Water falls through our hands as we fall through it. And when a woman […]
With all my living breath
“….Yes, there is all this foolish beauty, borne beyond midnight, that has no desire to go home, especially now when everyone in the room is watching the large man with the tenor sax that hangs from his neck like a golden fish. He moves forward to the edge of the stage and hands the instrument […]
bottled poetry
“Wine is bottled poetry.” Robert Louis Stevenson Wine and poetry have always made great companions. In regards to poetry, I have willingly followed Baudelaire’s invocation: “Enivrez-vous, enivrez-vous sans cesse…Get drunk, get drunk all the time! On wine, on poetry or on virtue – just as you please…” and I’m very fond of the Omar […]
there is no help for it
there is no help for it this day to day living will wear me out my man is gone taking my heart my spirit and my song with him there is no help for it i travel again and again calming my loneliness with the rhythm of the train another season comes using my tears […]
Happy Thursday?
Michele, Temar and Francesca Sometimes you don’t need a reason Not a birthday Not a holiday Just celebrating the day that is The friends that are New and old And the music that makes it all Allright…. Or as poet Lucille Clifton writes: come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me […]
Summer fling
It was a June-blue sunday, a perfect summer-fling day; a music-filled day with poetry and song and friends and laughter; and our spirits were high and the energy was electrifying and it was summer, and we were starting it with a blast at our first Toukouleur Jazz & Poetry Brunch. Wish you had been there […]
Age cannot wither her
Plutarch, in the “Life of Antony” written a century after the great romance, said of Cleopatra: “Her actual beauty, it is said, was not in itself so remarkable that none could be compared with her. But the contact of her presence, if you lived with her, was irresistible; the attraction of her person, joining with […]
Yes! I am un immense provocateur!
La première et unique fois que j’ai vu chanter Léo Ferré sur scène, j’avais dix-huit ans. Il interpretait Préface, ce texte magnifique sur la poésie, s’élançait, étouffait de colère, oubliait des bribes de texte que le public indulgent et amoureux lui relançait….J’étais bouleversée par sa présence; subjuguée par ses mots. Mais je connaissais dejà Ferré. […]
being human
this being human is a guest house. every morning a new arrival. a joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. welcome and entertain them all! even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. he may be […]
Sweet Sounds of Poetry and Music
at Solomon’s Porch: Spoken word performance immerses audience in words, rhythms and emotions by Tequila Minsky, in Heritagekonpa Magazine Michèle Voltaire Marcelin is a renaissance artist. She paints. She is an actress — recently a reader in the performance of the Vagina Monologues at the Brooklyn Museum; her film credits include a role in […]
defender la alegría
defender la alegría como una trinchera defenderla del escándalo y la rutina de la miseria y los miserables de las ausencias transitorias y las definitivas defender la alegría como un principio defenderla del pasmo y las pesadillas de los neutrales y de los neutrones de las dulces infamias y los graves diagnósticos defender la […]
life
i will not die an unlived life i will not live in fear of falling or catching fire i choose to inhabit my days to allow my living to open me to make me less afraid more accessible to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise i choose to risk […]
Michèle Voltaire Marcelin is a poet/writer, performer and painter who was born and raised in Haiti, sojourned in Chile, and currently lives in the United States. The publication of her first novel “La Désenchantée” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2006) was followed by its Spanish translation “La Desencantada” and two other books of poetry and prose: “Lost and Found” and “Amours et Bagatelles” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2009) - translated into Spanish by Editorial ALBA as "Amores y cosas sin importancia" - all of which garnered rave reviews. Her writings are also featured in 3 anthologies published in France: "Cahier Haiti" (published by RAL'M-2009), "Terre de Femmes" (Editions Bruno Doucey-2011) "Revue Intranqu'îllités" (2012). She speaks and writes fluently French, English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. She has a BFA from the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at CUNY and a Masters from The New School for Social Research.